Oppidum Novum
Map showing Oppidum Novum just south of Caesarea of Mauretania
Oppidum Novum was a Roman settlement in Berber north Africa. It is actually called Aïn Defla, a town in central Algeria located 150 km south-west of Algiers.
History
The small city was founded next to the river Cheliff [1] by veterans of Emperor Claudius.[2] It prospered as a commercial and agricultural center, where Christianity was important since the Septimius Severus times.
In the fifth and sixth century, it was an episcopal see: its Bishop Benantius was exiled by the Vandal King Huneric.
Oppidum Novum was partially destroyed by the Arab conquest, but historian El Behkri wrote that a city called El Kadra flourished there in the ninth century.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Oppidum Novum p. 305
- ↑ Smyth Vereker, Charles. "Scenes in the Sunny South: Including the Atlas Mountains and the Oases of the Sahara in Algeria" p. 73
Bibliography
- Mommsen, Theodore. The Provinces of the Roman Empire Section: Roman Africa. (Leipzig 1865; London 1866; London: Macmillan 1909; reprint New York 1996) Barnes & Noble. New York, 1996
- Reynell Morell, John. Algeria: The Topography and History, Political, Social, and Natural, of French Africa. Publisher N. Cooke. London, 1854 ( )
- Smith Reid, James. The Municipalities of the Roman Empire. The University Press. University of Michigan, 1913
- Smyth Vereker, Charles. Scenes in the Sunny South: Including the Atlas Mountains and the Oases of the Sahara in Algeria. Volume 2. Publisher Longmans, Green, and Company. University of Wisconsin. Madison,1871 ( )
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